Hickey
by writtendaydreams
Summary: "The group of girls point and laugh when they pass by her breakfast table. On the usual occasion, she would assume the girls were making the hickey up, and she would have continued packing away her books for class, but remembering the things she did last night with Percy, she had a feeling that they weren't lying." Just a Percabeth, Annabeth-centered ficelet written at 2 am.


xoxo - isa.

"Is that a hickey, Annabeth?!"

Look, Annabeth didn't plan on getting a hickey.

How was she supposed to know how hard Percy was kissing her? She was so caught up in what was happening . . . well, she _supposed_ that she _maybe_ lost all her focus on everything, _but_ him, last night . . . and something like his hands on her thighs _might_ have contributed to that.

The group of girls point and laugh when they pass by her breakfast table. On the usual occasion, she would assume the girls were making it up, and she would have continued packing away her books for class, but remembering the things she did last night with Percy, she had a feeling that they weren't lying.

Annabeth's hands automatically shoot to her neck, cheeks flushing, heart pounding against her ribcage, startled from the embarrassment. That morning, she had shuffled around her dorm room dazed, and groggy (like a zombie, Percy would have said) too tired to actually care enough to check her face in the bathroom mirror. She had slipped on her plain everyday hoodie, but apparently it wasn't enough to substantially hide the-yet-to-be-found-out-assumingly-large-sized-bruise on her neck.

"Guess we all know what she does on her weekends now!" One of the girls named Courtney's hands flew up to her mouth to cover a loud mule-sounding laugh. Her friends follow along with the over-exaggerated act. They continue on walking away, laughing, and scoffing like a bunch of pet apes.

Annabeth holds a tight-lipped sarcastic smile, rolls her eyes, and heads in the opposite direction of the vexatious group of girls for the bathroom.

The last mirror at the end of room, she stands and stares at the red and blue quarter-sized spot on her neck. Gods, Percy, I'm going to murder you, she thinks as she kneads the mark with her fingertips. Annabeth stops for a moment when she remembers that she's been dating him for almost four months now. This "hickey-thing" is normal, right? She knows she doesn't have anything to compare her relationship with him to, because she's rather inexperienced, but she reminds herself, this is Percy we're talking about. _There's no way that he'd do it on purpose._ She smiles, and shakes her head at his unintended antics.

xx.

For the rest of the day, she corrals all of her focus into covering up the hickey. It goes as far as pulling her collar up around her neck, even though she would bet twenty drachmas that she looks like Count Dracula. Through her first couple periods, it's all she can think about. She does try to study other things, such as her geometry project, or the English essay (that only causes her more exasperation because the words are practically bouncing off the walls as the more stressed she gets), to no avail.

It's finally fourth period when Mrs. Slattery is telling Annabeth in her usual bitch annoying voice to pull her collar down, because it's against dress code. All eyes on her, because getting told off by that old hag is _everyone's business_. Before Annabeth knows it, she's being handed a white slip to the office, for a). telling her superior to, quote, "shove it." b). being caught with a hickey on her neck and private school rules state that you must call your parent and inform them of your "actions," as punishment, because they aren't there to punish you themselves.

The office lady hands her a slip for lunch detention, and picks up the school office phone. "It says here that your parent is Sally Jackson?"

"Yes, that's correct," Annabeth breathes through gritted teeth. Chiron had it be changed to Sally, because she was far closer than he or her father during a mortal situation, and Chiron was more than sure she was able to get herself out of a godly one, so Sally it was.

The phone rings once, then twice, then thrice with no answer and she prays the gods that Sally is eating lunch somewhere or just not able to pick up the phone, but to Annabeth's dismay, she answers before the last ring. Annabeth curses in Ancient Greek, earning herself a raised eyebrow from the office lady.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Mrs. Jackson, I'm here with your daughter Annabeth, and she seems to be in a bit of trouble . . . She's not in any major trouble . . . no . . . no . . . of course, it's just the vice principal's rule that she explain to you the situation . . . Yes . . . Yes, I'll put her on for you. One moment."

The office lady hands Annabeth the phone, and she sighs before she speaks.

"Hey Sally! . . ." Annabeth apprehensively starts.

"Hi, Annabeth. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm . . . uh . . . fine. Everything's fine, but I—" She makes a face back at the office lady, who gestures for her to get on with it. "-I told a teacher to shove it."

There was no reply for a few moments, but calmy Sally spoke, "Ah, don't worry about it. Some of the things Percy says to his teachers are a billion times worse. It was for a good reason, right?"

"Yes," Annabeth laughs out, dreading the hickey thing more and more.

"Is that it?"

"No, uh, one more thing." And, she goes for it. "The school caught me with a hickey, and it's a rule at my school that if any student is caught with a hickey, then they have to call and tell their parent/guardian." Annabeth nervously pushes a loose piece of hair behind her ear, and takes it out, and then puts it behind her ear again. Percy always teases her about it, and calls it "cute," but she has a feeling it makes her look more OCD than cute.

_Oh, Percy._ She really was going to kill him.

"Oh . . . ?"

"Um, yeah . . . I'm sorry for this call, you know, because, well . . . You know."

"I know," Sally giggles. "Next time, just tell me, and I can help you. With makeup."

Annabeth cringes inward and can practically feel Sally smiling through the phone, suppressing half the much she wants to laugh. Annabeth's never going to live this one down.

Annabeth's about to thank Sally and end the call when Sally speaks again. "If it makes you feel any better, Percy tried to leave for school this morning in Paul's turtleneck without us noticing."

_Oh gods no, I gave him one too._

Before Annabeth awkwardly gets the chance to thank and apologize to her once more, Sally adds, "Percy's going to pick you up after school, and we'll all get pizza from down the block after Paul gets home from work."

She hangs up, and Annabeth is dismissed back to class where she instead uses her Yankee's cap to ditch back to her dorm and wait for Seaweed Brain.

xx

A few makeup compacts from drug stores and hours later, she meets Percy by his car on the backside of her private school campus.

He uncomfortably leans back against the Prius for support, and has his hands in his pockets, until he sees her approaching in which he stands up straight (notably still awkward), and waves. Along with his jeans and that _turtleneck_, he wears a pink-faced half smile that makes her heart do jumping jacks hard enough to break through her ribcage even after all the time she's known him.

"So," Percy begins, "my Mom told me about the call you made earlier."

Annabeth covers her hands with her face, and looks down at the ground. "Oh, nooo. _She told you?_"

"I went to school this morning in my stepfather's turtleneck," Percy's face turns a deeper shade of red, and he looks down at his shoes. "We're practically twins." He reaches forward, and rubs his thumb over the barely visible blue spot under layers of makeup. "Sorry, for the, um . . ." his sentence fades off because she knows he doesn't want to say _the_ word.

Annabeth does the same, pulling the collar of his turtleneck with her pointer finger, examining the mark on his neck that's even slightly bigger than her own. "Ditto. Now, come on, we have crappy day-time television shows to watch, and pizza to eat." she says, letting him open the door for her.

In the car, Annabeth leans forward and kisses him on the cheek … and then hits him on the shoulder. Hard, even though she knows he's invulnerable and it can't hurt him.

"What was that for?" Percy rubs his shoulder out of habit.

"The kiss was for being cute, and the hit was for giving me a _hickey_, Seaweed Brain." His face flushes, but he smirks before putting the car into drive.

And for a moment, having a blue mark on her neck isn't too bad when you've got an adorable boyfriend and pizza to make up for it.


End file.
